Manage Live chat

Live chat basics

Live chat is enabled by default and will appear to the right of the video player only when your event is active. The Live chat module only exists on the YouTube watch pages — it does not follow embedded players. Watch the video demo.

Viewers can choose between two views of Live chat at any time.

Top chat: This view filters messages such as potential spam to help make chat easier to read and more useful.

Live chat: This view is not filtered. It shows all chat messages as they come in.

Live chat badges identify the Streamer and Moderator . Click on the expandable area below for more information on moderators.

Viewers are limited to 200 characters and a maximum of 3 submissions every 30 seconds. Event owners are not subject to the frequency threshold. Viewers cannot post special characters, URLs or HTML tags.

You can review chat activity in YouTube Analytics. The "Comments" metric is for live and on demand.

Manage Live chats

Use the menu to pop out live chat in a new window for easy moderation or see a list of active chat users from the last 5 minutes.

You can have YouTube hold potentially inappropriate live chat messages. If you choose to opt in, live chat messages that our system identifies will be held for review in the chat feed. You have the final decision whether to show or hide these chat messages. No system is perfect, but this feature can make it easier for you to moderate live chat messages on your live stream.

You can assign moderators for all live chat sessions. Moderators remain on the list until they are unassigned.

We strongly recommend that you have at least one dedicated live chat moderator for high-traffic events. Moderators can interact with the audience and remove comments when appropriate. They can also flag, hide, or put users in time out.

Assign moderators

Select menu next to username in chat and select Set User as Moderator or follow these instructions:

Click the three dots (...) next to the chat text box.

Enter a username.

Set up one list of moderators for your channel. Moderators remain on the list until they are unassigned.

Inline moderation

On desktop, hold down 'ALT' / 'Option' on your keyboard to pause the chat feed and hover over messages. You will see options to delete the message, place the user in time out, and hide the user from the chat message feed or comments section on your channel.

Manage spam messages

Select the checkbox for Automatically block spam messages checkbox. This blocks simple spam such as long messages in all caps or repeated identical messages by the same user.

Block words proactively

Compile blocked words in the Community Settings section. Live chats matching these words will be blocked.

You can also block links from being used in comments by typing "*links*" into the Blocked words field.

Hide a viewer from live chat

Select menu next to the chat message and select Hide User or follow these instructions:

Go to the viewer's YouTube channel.

Click the About tab.

Click on the flag and select Hide.

Note: This will also hide the user from the comments. Users you have hidden will be visible in Hidden Users in Community Settings.

Unhide a viewer from live chat

To remove hide status:

Go to the viewer's YouTube channel.

Click the About tab.

Click on the flag and select Unhide.

Note: Once a user's hide status has been removed, they will once again be able to leave comments and live chat messages on your channel.